Since I have now run out of trips for a little while, I have decided to talk about some special, silly, and/or interesting experiences from my travels. These will include more personal details or be from different perspectives than some of my previous posts, especially the earlier ones.
When I was a kid, we didn’t really do traveling. We rented a lake cabin a couple of times. We traveled to visit family. But we never took any real trips.
So, as an adult, not too long after re-joining the rest of my family, which had moved to Minneapolis, my mom and I decided to take a trip to London. She and I were both what you could call Anglophiles plus we had shared British heritage on her side of the family and I had additional British heritage on my father’s side of the family. If we were going on an adventure, it was going to be to London.
This was in the days before the Internet. A travel agent was how it was done back in 1983. In the building where I worked was just such a travel agent. So I picked up a couple brochures and we figured out what we wanted to do.
The choices were to take a fully escorted tour or to book a package through the main airline that served Minneapolis/St Paul. The package would include airfare, hotel, a rail transfer between the airport and the hotel, one or two day trips out of London, and tickets to a play. We chose the package and I met with the travel agent.
We put together a 10-day trip that would coincide with the Trooping the Colour Ceremony for the Queen’s official birthday. We picked two day trips — one to Stonehenge & Bath, and one to Oxford & Stratford-Upon-Avon. We also chose to attend a medieval banquet and to see the play “The Real Thing”.
I had become enamored with an actor named Roger Rees from when “David Copperfield” played on Broadway. He was starring in “The Real Thing” along with Felicity Kendall (who had been in several British TV shows I had seen on PBS) and Jeremy Clyde (who had been part of the singing duo Chad & Jeremy before switching to acting).
Our hotel was at Piccadilly Circus and the theatre was The Strand — quite a walk from the hotel. But I figured it out on the map. The day trips and the medieval banquet would pick us up from the hotel. Because I had lived in New York City for several years and had ridden the subway there, I felt no trepidation about riding the underground (the Tube) in London to visit the other locations we wanted to see.
Once we arrived at Gatwick Airport, we found the train we needed to London’s Victoria Station. This particular train still had the cars with doors opening out from individual compartments. It was an extra special experience as this would be the only time in all of our visits to London where we had that type of rail car. By the next trip in 1991, the trains were all modern with totally conventional rail cars.
From Victoria Station, we took a taxi to the hotel. As we were rounding some very high walls, Mom said, “I wonder what that is.” “Buckingham Palace”, the driver and I responded simultaneously. Mom and the driver both said, “How did you know that?”
There was nothing indicating what it was. I just knew. Somehow. The cab driver was amazed. Mom was thrilled. It gave her the idea that I would know where we were at all times and we would not get lost. To be fair, I had been studying the map so thoroughly that I had nearly memorized it. I still use that same map.
The day before we left on our trip, the travel agent gave us tickets for “The Mousetrap” for our first night in London. The original owners of the tickets had canceled their trip, so we benefited from some freebies. We then made the mistake of trying to take an afternoon nap.
We had not slept on the plane and all and were quite tired. But we were also very excited about being there. We could not sleep. We ended up not being able to sleep that night either. So, by the next day — our first full day in London — we were exhausted. But we had a full day ahead of us.
I had overestimated how much we could cover in a day. On the list was: The National Gallery, the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, the Wellington Museum (Apsley House), the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament.
At the National Gallery, partially due to a late start, we only had time to take a quick look at some paintings by Michelangelo and Leonardo de Vinci before we needed to take a quick hike up the The Mall to see the Changing of the Guards. The Mall was lined with flags. Mom and I were overcome. We were really in London!
As short as I am, plus we arrived just before it started, meant that I didn’t get too many decent photos of the Changing of the Guards itself. We could see it fairly well however and I did get one good shot when they were right in front of me (and nobody else was) and another of the Horseguards approaching. Then we went to Apsley House and had a good tour there.
After a light lunch we toured the Royal Mews which contains the carriages and motor vehicles used by the royal family. I really enjoyed that tour. Part of the reason was because we were on the palace grounds, behind that tall wall we had passed the day before.
We walked from there to Westminster Abbey. We were able to see the parts of the Abbey that were free (now there are no parts that are free), but couldn’t see the Royal Tombs due to a funeral that was taking place there. I asked if they would be open after the Trooping the Colour on Saturday and was told they would be. So Mom and I shifted our plans for Saturday to be able to include that visit.
We found that we could not see the inside of Parliament, so headed up Whitehall to return to our hotel and get ready to see “The Real Thing” that night.
Next time – more adventures in London on that first real trip anywhere.
Buckingham Palace and The Mall 
Changing the Guard 
Horseguards Approaching 
Apsley House 
At the Royal Mews 
Banqueting House along Whitehall 
Westminster Abbey in 1983 
Professional photo of The Real Thing